4chanintfandomcom-20200213-history
Dutch grammar
Introduction This is the wiki page for Dutch grammar. Dutch grammar is generally considered easy for an English speaker so it shouldnt be too difficult.This is mostly an overview or a reference page. This is not intended to be an extensive guide and you're probably best of using course book. I will assume that you already know the Dutch alphabet and spelling rules This page is not even close to completion Subjects are marked based of difficulty as follows: ★ :Lower beginner (Partially covered) ★★: Upper beginner (Partially covered) ★★★: Lower intermediate (Partially covered) ★★★★: Upper intermediate (Not covered yet) ★★★★★: Advanced (Not covered yet) A Plus-sign (+) marks that Dutch natives often do this wrong, even if it is a relatively easy subject Furthermore, "1" Denotes that the second form is informal but very common "2" Denotes that the second form is informal and officially wrong Adjectives Adjective conjugation★+ In Dutch, Adjectives are sometimes conjugated and may have an extra -e Articles Just like other Germanic languages, Dutch distinguishes between definite and indefinite articles: Definite articles★+ Dutch has 2 types of denifite articles. One for male or female nouns(De), and one for neuter nouns(Het). Like French and German, there are no exact rules, but there are some general rules of thumb: * Plurals always use "De" * Diminutives are always neuter * Names of language are often neuter. ( Het Nederlands) * Words that end on -isme, -ment, -sel or -um are also often Neuter * Most words that represent people (especially female forms of those nouns) are often male/female * German speakers: German words and Dutch words often have the same Gender. Words that are neuter in German are often '''neuter in Dutch as well If you still aren't sure there are various sites like:https://www.welklidwoord.nl/ that show what definite article a word has. Indefinite articles★ The indefinite article is always een. and is used in almost all contexts where you would use "A" in English. één You may have noticed that the Dutch indefinite article and word for "one" are the exact same word (een). This luckily isn't much of a problem because they are used in similar situations. If someone still wants to place emphasis that it's "One" and not "A" they may use één for emphasis, this is not common in informal speech though. '''Example Hij had maar een uur nodig!(He only needed an hour) Hij had maar één uur nodig!(He only needed ONE hour) Nouns Personal pronouns★ Dutch personal pronouns are somewhat similar to English and German ones. And just like in German and English they may not be ommited in combination with Verbs. Nominative Singular Plural Accusative Singular Plural Possesive pronouns ★ Possesive pronouns indicate (obvously) possesion Singular Plural Accusative pronouns ★ Accusative pronouns denote accusative functions in a sentence, just like English, Dutch does not have an accusative case beyond these pronouns Singular Plural Plurals ★ Plurals in Dutch are fairly easy for an English speaker and should mostly be fairly straightforward -En or -S Most nouns on these letters, there are no set rules for when a plural ends in one instead of another. -'S " 'S " is for Plurals that would normally be written with an "s" without an apostrophe, but need the apostrophe for pronunciation and spelling purposes, Particularly for nouns that end on long vowels that would become short vowels if the "s" was added without an apostrophe Examples Auto - Auto's (Auto ends on a long vowel) Baby - Baby's (Baby ends on an y) More explanation on those spelling rules in the Dutch spelling page, coming soon''tm -Us Words that end on -Us end on -I in the plural form just like in Latin and English -Um Nouns that en on -Um end on -A in the plural form Diminutives ★★★ Turning a word into a diminutive is basically adding a suffix (-Je, -Etje, -Tje, -Kje or -Pje) to a noun to imply that the noun is smaller than it would normally be, it's difficult to explain so here are some examples Hond - Dog Hondje - Little Dog Huis - House Huisje - Small house etc. -Je, -Tje, -Etje, -Kje or -Pje ? '-Je''' Nouns that end on p, t, k, d, s or f get a -je suffix '-Tje' words that end on any vowel, or a long vowel followed by a "r" or "l" get a -Tje suffix '-Etje' Short vowels followed by r, l, n, m or ng get an -Etje suffix '-Kje' words that end on -ing get a -Kje suffix and the last "g" gets removed '-Pje' Nouns that end on a long vowel followed by a "m" get a -Pje suffix * Verbs Regular verbs (Present simple)★ Regular verbs go according to this table: Bold marks the endings Common irregular verbs★ (partially finished) Te zijn(to be) Hebben (to have) Note: ' The 3rd Person singular form(Hij heeft) is the only irregular one Willen (to want) '''Note: ' The 3rd Person singular form(Hij wil) is the only irregular one Word order SVO2 word order ★★ The Dutch word order follows the SVO2, and because Dutch and German are the only languages that use it, it might be difficult for you to wrap their head around. In short, Dutch sentences are formed according to the following pattern: Subject+Auxiliary verb+Object+Location/Time/+Other Verbs Examples (In the following examples the Auxiliary verbs are '''bold and other verbs are in Italics) Hij wil straks fietsen '' ( he wants to ride his bike later) Hij '''Moet' alleen werken (He has to work alone) = Inversion★★★★ Category:Dutch